Modern military type rifles and similar small arms usually can be fired on full automatic or in controlled bursts of fire and as a consequence they need to be loaded with an adequate supply of cartridges. This is usually accomplished by designing the receiver of the firearm to accept a box type magazine. This opening is commonly referred to as a magazine well and usually involves some type of protrusion or the like that fits around and secures a portion of the magazine in its proper position so that proper feeding of the cartridges into the chamber of the firearm is accomplished.
These magazines commonly extend downward from the lower portion of the receiver. In view of the construction of the magazines and their location within the small arm the amount of ammunition that can be loaded in a given magazine is definitely limited. The amount of ammunition that can be loaded into such magazines can be increased by increasing the length of the magazine and by providing means for staggering the ammunition within the magazine so that there are two staggered columns of ammunition which are fed into the receiver of the firearm through the magazine well. However, since such small arms must be used with the firer in the prone position the capacity of such magazines is limited due to the limitation on its length.
Since modern day military small arms have a high rate of fire when fired on full automatic this has meant that empty magazines have had to be ejected from the magazine well and replaced by loaded magazines at frequent intervals. This, of course, is very detrimental under combat conditions and under certain situations such as night fighting or when firing from inside vehicles it may be particularly difficult. Indeed, it may even be difficult with the firer in the prone position. Consequently, the need exists to further increase the capacity of the magazine so that it does not need to be replaced as often as it is under current circumstances.
One solution that has been attempted in the past is to provide the weapon or firearm with a drum type of magazine. This type of magazine has the capability of carrying a large number of cartridges. Although the drum type of magazine offers the advantage of having additional ammunition capacity there are also several important disadvantages associated with prior art drum magazines. One disadvantage has been that they are rather complex and expensive to manufacture. Another disadvantage is that due to their complexity they have a tendency to jam. Moreover, under most circumstances in order to utilize a drum magazine a firearm or weapon had to be designed to accept such a magazine. In this connection, drum type magazines have generally not been designed to be utilized in rifles and the like which employ rather deep magazine wells for receiving the straight or curved double staggered type ammunition magazines.
Drum types of magazines are by no means new and examples of such types of magazines are presented in U.S. Pat. Nos. 979,721; 1,042,837; 1,368,375; 1,921,871; 2,223,380; 2,321,720; and 2,367,572. It will be noted that these magazines are designed to feed cartridges into a receiver that either does not have a magazine well or into the magazine well of a pistol or the like which employs a single column type of feeding system. Other patents demonstrating drum magazines are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,596,293 and 2,756,637. Additional similar foreign patents are German Pat. No. 571,770 and 2,326,542 plus British Pat. No. 539,414 and Italian Pat. No. 484,197.
Although some of these patents disclose provisions for feeding cartridges into a magazine well or the like they do not disclose adequate provisions for feeding cartridges from a drum magazine into the magazine well for a double staggered box type of magazine or the like. Moreover, many of these magazines employ follower systems or the like that are unduly complex. It should be noted that trying to cause a double staggered columns of cartridges to bend or curve creates the distinct possibility of jamming due to the increased resistance or friction between the outer portions of the cartridges and the means for causing the cartridges to bend or curve.
One inherent difficulty with the prior art magazines has been the tendency for the magazine follower and an associated cartridge or cartridges to tip forward in the magazine as an attempt is made to strip a cartridge from the magazine as the firearm bolt or the like moves forward. This almost always results in a jam that prevents the cartridge from being porperly fed into the chamber of the firearm. This tendency is more pronounced with followers for double staggered magazines.
These problems have been overcome with the present small arm magazine which includes a drum magazine which is readily usable in existing small arm weapons with magazine wells which have been designed with a regular box or clip type of magazine without any required modifications to the small arm. Moreover, the magazine is designed to be utilized in small arm weapons with magazine wells for the double column staggered type of magazines. In addition, the magazine is resistant to jamming caused by binding of two columns of staggered cartridges and its follower is also jam resistant. The magazine also does not interfere with the use of the small arm since its downward protrusion is limited.